When you become the only shutout victim of the season for a team as lowly as the Ottawa Senators, you really have to take stock of yourselves.

We’re sure some of that stuff is going on around the Montreal Canadiens‘ camp, but are there any solutions for them in advance of Monday night’s game against the Edmonton Oilers and their prolific scoring duo?

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It’s funny you should ask, because they might just have the right combination to take care of that challenge.

And we might just have a great play to cash in with.

Here’s the setup:

Montreal Canadiens vs. Edmonton Oilers Preview

Canadiens vs. Oilers Picks

When: 10 PM ET

NHL Betting Odds

Money Line: Oilers -130 / Canadiens +110

Total: Under 6 Goals -120 / Over 6 Goals +100

Puck Line: Oilers -1.5 Goals (+185) / Canadiens +1.5 Goals (-225)

Montreal has proven to be a rather impotent side without Brendan Gallagher. The winger, who has scored 14 goals, still third best on the team, has a thumb injury and will be out of action until at least the start of the playoffs.

He has missed seven games, five of which Montreal has lost, and they have scored just eleven goals during that period.

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So maybe the playoffs and Gallagher’s return are a certainty, and maybe they’re not.

In the North Division, the Oilers find no such danger. They are seven points ahead of Montreal, and because of games in hand, you could say they have an outside shot at catching the Toronto Maple Leafs for the #1 seed.

As everyone knows, Edmonton has two dynamic scorers – in fact, both scoring champions and MVP’s in previous seasons. Conor McDavid currently has 23 goals and 48 assists, while Leon Draisaitl has 22 goals and 41 assists.

As we discussed before they played Calgary early last week, these Oilers may have two of the biggest superstars in the game, but they do not resemble the team of the Wayne Gretzky era, which had a lot of depth in the firepower department. Once you get past McDavid and Draisaitl, there is a precipitous dip in offensive production, so if you can keep them under wraps you’ve got more than half the battle won.

The Flames, by the way, posted a 5-0 shutout win in that game, as the “Big Two” combined for four shots on goal and nothing else.

Well, perhaps it is their misfortune that they’ll be facing Carey Price on Monday night. Price’s numbers this season are kind of modest (2.67 GAA, .900 Save Percentage) and certainly pale in comparison to his Hart/Vezina Trophy winning season of 2014-15 (1.96 GAA, .933 Save %). On top of that, last season he got lit up for seven goals in two starts against Edmonton.

However, handicappers may have noticed, he seems to have the Oilers’ number this season, as he has allowed three goals in three games against them – all victories. And the Montreal defensive corps obviously has to get a lot of credit here as well.

The first meeting Price had with them was on January 16. Drasaitl had six shots on goal, while McDavid had two shots and an assist. But neither one scored a goal of their own in a 5-1 Montreal win.

In these last two games – one of which was a shutout victory for Price – Draisaitl and McDavid combined for just six shots on goal. Neither man has scored a goal on Price over the three games. And let’s keep in mind that these guys are 1-2 in points in the NHL.

Overall, the Canadiens have taken four of the five encounters this season. But it should be mentioned that this all happened before Gallagher went down with his injury. And Gallagher had a goal and an assist in Price’s 4-0 shutout win on March 30.

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So we are not as confident in the Habs’ offense as we may have been then. And now we’ve seen that since Oilers coach Dave Tippett chose to put McDavid and Draisaitl together on a line, the scoring rate for both of them has dropped. In fact, over the 12-game period it’s been in effect, the Oilers have averaged seven shots on goal less than they did prior. And what they describe as “Grade A scoring chances” is down almost completely across the board. That’s translated to a half a goal less per game.

All this means something for us, because between their problems and those of the Habs, it spells “under” for us on a total that is actually a bit more elevated then usual.

The Play: UNDER 6 GOALS (-120)